CMHC PULSE

Currently a professor at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and the Director of the USC Clinical Diabetes Programs, Dr. Anne L. Peters has worked in the field of diabetes prevention through extensive involvement with multiple clinical trials, NIH grants, over 100 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, and speaking engagements across the globe.

While concurrently directing diabetes centers in Beverly Hills and in underserved East Los Angeles, Dr. Peters works with the LA County Department of Health Services on the institution of a county-wide diabetes program. Dr. Peters has previously served as director of the clinical diabetes programs at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA before her tenure at USC, after receiving her medical degree from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, performing an internal medicine residency at Stanford University and Harbor UCLA Medical Center, and a fellowship in endocrinology at Cedars-Sinai.

Dr. Peters has served as a principal investigator on multiple clinical trials focused on diabetes prevention, and is currently involved with three NIH grants aimed at curbing and reducing heart disease and diabetes. Dr. Peters has additionally established the Community Diabetes Initiatives Research Center in collaboration with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She has authored three books on diabetes, in addition to articles that have appeared in JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Diabetes Care.

Dr. Peters serves on the ABIM Endocrine Board, multiple ADA committees, and the EASD/ADA Diabetes Technology Committee. She was the recipient of the ADA Outstanding Physician Clinician Award in 2008, and the 2010 Bernardo Houssay Award from the National Minority Quality Forum for her work with underserved populations. Dr. Peters has of the ADA/EASD Position Statement on “Management of Hyperglycemia in Type 2 Diabetes,” and the ADA Position Statement on “Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes Across the Lifespan.”

Join us in San Diego on May 6th for the CMHC Regional Conference, and hear Dr. Peters and colleagues address “T2DM Updates in Treatment and Cardiovascular Outcomes and Trials” while providing updates on current and emerging therapies, treatment guidelines, and strategies to improve clinical outcomes.

While most physicians and nutritionists agree that low to moderate levels of weekly physical activity is often insufficient to significantly reduce body weight, studies indicate that those who transition from little to no daily physical activity to moderate levels have clinically meaningful reductions in cardiometabolic risk.

Scores of controlled trials over the last decade demonstrate that physical activity helps mitigate and reduce cardiometabolic risk via biologic mechanisms, which are not entirely dependent upon body weight or BMI reduction. Research increasingly supports that those who have prediabetes should consistently increase physical activity levels, despite little to no weight loss.

According to research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the benefits of physical activity may outweigh the impact of being overweight and/or obese in middle-aged and elderly people. The observational study, conducted with a sample size of over 5,000 people aged 55 years and older, followed up with participants for 15 years. While overweightness and obesity is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, and weight loss is recommended, it is slightly different with the elderly population: weight loss, especially unintentional, is often associated with muscle loss and death.

Regardless of age, physical activity is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Studies have further demonstrated that physical activity is protective for cardiovascular risk, playing a crucial role in the health of middle-aged and elderly people. Without adequate physical activity, those who are overweight and obese are at a significantly higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The harmful effects of overweightness and obesity occur through adipose tissue, which accelerates the atherosclerotic process, thereby increasing cardiovascular risk. Exercise and physical activity lowers the harmful effects of atherosclerosis by reducing the stabilization of plagues on blood vessels, ultimately reducing the heart’s oxygen demand. Engaging in high levels of physical activity protects people from the harmful effects of adipose tissue on cardiovascular disease. The idea: move—and move often!